Stitching in Sunshine

Good morning folks - hope the sun is shining where you are. We've had some torrential rain over the last couple of days but the sky is blue - mostly! and the sun is shining this morning. Weirdly this has not helped my indoor photography so apologies for that.

We've had a pretty quiet weekend, and today appears to be just strolling along gently. I am going for a walk and popping in to visit mum on the way back. She was quite up-beat when I last saw her, looking more herself, less the bewildered and wizened old lady. I have a couple of textile commissions to finish so will be working on them today, and this evening it will be a spot of music and gossip over at Rob and Marj's. They have just returned home after a wonderful week on a narrow-boat on the Welsh canals.

 Following on from my last two posts, both of which included stories and photographs of narrow boats, I have been pondering about the resurgence in interest in this gentle form of transport. I have a friend who lives full time with her husband on their narrow-boat, the Lady Arwen, and they love their life. Another friend and her family live between their house and their narrow-boat, purchased initially as 'digs' for her husband who lectures at a university too far away from home to commute. Yet another young musical friend (all these people are musicians!) spends most of his life renovating his narrow-boat and holding epic parties-  it seems to me, from the photographs, on-board as he progresses! Other friends are tentatively taking their first narrow-boating holidays, having caught onto the current 'zeitgeist'.  I would love to try it myself - but I suspect our visit to Brecon earlier this month is the closest I am likely to get!

So, back to textiles - here a few photos of the wool cushion I am making for the next craft fair.

Close up of the front, I am re-using the Big Blue Bird, which also featured on one of the cushions which sold at Open Studios. The main fabric is a charity-shop blanket which I dyed in the washing machine - I love this raspberry colour.

Here a close-up of the reverse side, showing a hand-stitched button-hole and two hand-made felt and cardboard buttons - yes, they will have stitching -holes punched into them before I attach them!

Here is the front of a cushion cover requested by a visitor to Open Studios. She wanted a small cushion with the image of a naive vase and flowers which I had included on a small folk-art quilt. I sized up the image and appliqued the pieces onto the background, which I then stipple-quilted to give that antique effect she had so admired.

I added a little hand embroidery here and there, and attached the two borders. I now have to make the back, which will be constructed form a man's thrifted shirt; I shall use the front, so that the buttons will provide a ready-made opening for the cushion pad to be inserted.

This last is an unfinished commission which I can't tell you any more about because it is a secret! Again, as I said in an earlier post, the greens just do not reproduce well on my camera, but I am using pieces from the two blankets I dyed, the green and the raspberry. I need more blankets!!!! I am really enjoying using them and can choose my own colours by dyeing them myself.

So, the sun is still shining - I am off for my walk and visit. Have a lovely day yourselves, won't you!

A couple of Jaunts

Hi Everybody - yes, I know, late again, this is getting to be a habit, I'm sorry. Lots of stuff happening re mum, and hours and hours of official paperwork re her move and also the house sale. Also a difficult time too, getting mum settled into her new home, not all wonderful I have to say and quite draining for all of us. But we take each visit as it comes, took mum to lunch at Sandringham the other day which was nice for both of us I hope and will give her something to talk and day-dream about.

The garden is looking its best at the moment, and the veggies are doing well; we had our first strawberries today they were really juicy and tasty. I am drawing a veil over my garlic growing and shall in future just keep on buying it from the market - much simpler!

Following our two week extravaganza that was Open Studios - which went well, thanks to all who came to see us, we did reasonably well though numbers were down on previous years - Yvonne and I popped down to Northampton to see a textile exhibition at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh house. Unfortunately apart from a couple, the exhibition photos I took have not come out for some reason. However, the ones I took of the house have so here are a few views of this magnificently conserved dwelling; the 'Thirties' is not my favourite era I have to say, but I did enjoy the tour.

After a lovely lunch in the cafe we strolled through the city in the sunshine, popped into Waterstones and made a few purchases, and then partook of a cooling cuppa, before making our way to the home of Yvonne's friends who live just outside Wellingborough. We stayed overnight at their beautiful mill house, it was totally fascinating. They keep a narrow boat on the River Nene which runs under their house through the mill. I was entranced by the whole place.

Jim and I had a day out along the North Norfolk coast on Friday, beautiful weather. We stopped in Wells and strolled round the quay, then drove further into the village proper and had lunch at a lovely pub. Another stroll after lunch brought us inevitably to a fishmonger, and we chose some sea-food for our tea. A lovely laid-back day, which unfortunately resulted in only one photograph as my camera battery died!

Mind you, it is a jolly nice photo, as I'm sure you'll agree, of Himself contemplating the boats in Wells quay.

I will try and not let it be another fortnight before I blog again! And I will catch up later on my blog reading and commenting - so much has passed me by, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you've all been up to. It has been a very busy time, and of course Open Studios took up time and energy. I sold some cushions and a large quilt and some little bits and pieces so was quite pleased; also have two commissions, and also invited, on the strength of people liking my work, to take part in two really nice craft fairs, more of which later. So, enjoy the nice weather, and catch you later.

Open Studios 2014

Welcome to Open Studios 2014. I do hope some of you will be able to pop in and visit us and have a look at the lovely things we've made. I am very fortunate to have been invited by my Stitch and Bitch friend Yvonne Autie to share Open Studio space with her at her home this year. Yvonne has done Open Studios for ten years or so and therefore is an 'old hand' - it has been really great for me to have someone who knows the ropes to lead the way through the application process and setting up.

It is a someone symbiotic relationship for us this year - Yvonne happy to have someone sharing the space as she hasn't had chance to produce her usual amount of silver jewellery or rag rugs, and I am so relieved to have someone do the organising as I have been totally consumed with seeing mum through her hip replacement operation, subsequent re-hab, and sadly through the awful, sad, and exhausting process of moving her into a residential care home. There are many things I haven't finished because I just had to stop 'making' while all this happened, but we think we have a pretty good display, bearing in mind this is Yvonne's home, not a white, studio space!

If you are local and have an Open Studios brochure, we are in the West Norfolk section at number 18. The address is   Derwent House, 24 Church Street, North Creake, Fakenham. NR21 9AD . Do come and see us! I shall be there Wednesday afternoon 28th May   Sunday 1st June all day  and Sunday  8th June all day. We are open 10am until 5pm.

You will see my patchwork quilts - this is called Technicolour Compass and is completely machine stitched and quilted. Some of Yvonne's rug-hooked cushions on the chair.

                                   Some of my - mainly wool and felt - cushions.

                                                 My colour wash cot quilts and throws.

      More quilts - the Birds and Baskets and Sunflower Farm quilts at the back on the window seat.

                                               A couple of vintage linen hangings.

      Yvonne in an article about rug making. She is wearing one of her fabulous collaged waistcoats.

        And here you can see just some of the beautiful sterling silver jewellery Yvonne makes.

So there we have it, I do hope some of you will make it up to see us, and I hope to have the chance to get out and see some other Open Studios too. If any of you have found this blog hoping to see something of my textile jaunt from this  Saturday, it is coming! Photographs as well, but I needed to get this post completed first and life is a little  complicated at the moment!

I know it's late .......

I know! I've done it again.... so sorry, 'stuff' just gets in the way, and believe me, you non-bloggers, once you get out of the daily habit of checking out the blogs and thinking about your own, the days pass amazingly quickly with nothing written, no photos taken, and people saying 'where is your latest blog post??' Which is very nice in one respect, but then it's a mad dash to put something together if you haven't got something planned. Which I do, sometimes, honest!

So......   right, here are some tiny blooms in the pot next to the back door; and here are some larger ones neath the beech tree .....

NOT my favourite flowers AT ALL, those awful massive great leaves floppin' about all over the place, but Jim likes them so, hey, he does the gardening.

And on the subject of flowers, here are the lovely daffs - I don't know why but I want to call them Jonquils - but then I know nothing about flowers really. They just look beautiful in my Siennese jug, and they come as usual, from Victoria: many thanks Victoria.

Not a great day to be taking photographs but the splash of colour is welcome, isn't it? (Oooops, have just noticed the bedraggled basil plant dying gracefully on the right there .... sorry about that!)

What else have I been doing? Quite a bit of music playing as it happens. I am in a frenzy of learning a new and somewhat difficult tune, so lots of teeth gritting and a few mild expletives when it doesn't sound right, also getting some tunes together to send to Stephen who organises the Burwell Bash each year . HURRAH!!! Have just booked my place and this year I will be in the new MELODEON class so it is bye-bye to the fiddle group and 'HELLO ANDY CUTTING!' Yessssss! There is a smidgeon of mild hysteria going about at the moment on that score but I'm sure we will all settle down soon and start behaving like adults. We need some tunes which melodeon players like to play, so the fiddles and guitars will be ok with them, the flutes and whistles might find some of them a bit awkward. But it is give and take - a lot of whistle tunes will be impossible for the DG melodeons, wrong key.But this is just in the evening sessions, and they are always a bit of a free-for-all. So I am having a bit of a re-cap on tunes I should really already know, but have slipped off the playing agenda of late.

I have been kept up to the mark in the stitching department, as I need to have more completed items for May's Open Studios and time passes quickly. Here is what I've been working on the last couple of weeks.

The wool throw is becoming more appliqué- filled, though it has a long way to go yet.

And this cushion cover is nearly there .....

Apart from pincushions and bangles, I don't enjoy making more than one or two of anything, but this cushion "One Bird Upon a Hill Beneath a Star" is quite popular, I have sold three, and funnily enough I do love stitching it. I make tiny changes each time I make it so actually they are not identical.

I promise to have a one or maybe two posts at the end of the weekend, very textile related, so I hope to get back in your good books!

And speaking of books, how are you getting on with your A Year in Books book? I have read two and need another to get me to the end of the month when I can begin March's book. I must say, it is never a hardship finding time to read. I hope the week is going right for you all and the weather is as kind as we can expect it to be in Winter.

Open Studios Re-visited

Right, are you ready for another Textile Jaunt? OK, check your look in the mirror and come with me!

          Lynne K and I set off through the sunny Norfolk lanes towards our first stop at Foulsham.

The lovely Shepherd's Hut Studio of Sally-Ann Rainey. What an incredible setting this is, restful greenery, and some very entertaining chooks of different varieties.

Sally-Ann paints these delightful ladies (and the occasional chap!) capturing their endearing personalities to a tee!

                     Also lots of other lovely things inside........................   .....................

 This gorgeous cushion came home with me. Drat, I meant to take a photograph of its big sister, the rag rug I bought last time I was here; it keeps my feet warm while I'm at the kitchen sink!

And here is lovely Sally-Ann herself, who treated us to refreshing elderflower juice to sip as we browsed. I hope the weather holds for the family celebrations later on this month, Sally-Ann!

Next stop, as we meandered our way northwards, was to re-visit Pauline Wrighton at her magnificent studio at Hindolveston.

                     I have told Pauline once or twice that she is living my fantasy life!

 
Pauline works in a number of different media, cloth, yarn, thread, paper and ink, using a variety of techniques. She exhibits and sells her work, and also runs workshops for small numbers.

                                    Pauline discussing her work enthusiastically with us.

I was particularly taken with a series of collographs, which she had printed on this wonderful old mangle - this seems to be a leitmotif in my blog-posts recently, doesn't it??

 This is an incredible piece of work, which my photograph does not do justice to. The Award winning piece was created by using tiny scraps of fabric laid down on a fabric ground much in the same way as a pointillist painter might use brush-strokes. Lynne and I are hoping to join Pauline for a workshop soon to have a go ourselves.

 Outside we went to re-acquaint ourselves with Pauline's gorgeous Haflinger mares. Gentle, friendly creatures, they ambled across to us for a fuss and a few handsful of fresh grass. What wouldn't I give to have this paddock at the bottom of MY garden!

Then we were off again, further north into High Norfolk, to the village of Glandford, near the river Glaven. Our destination was theArt Cafe, seen in the header photograph, owned and run by Roo Sangster-Bullers (I was once almost her Health Visitor, and years ago her husband purchased from me, as a gift for Roo, one of my Wacky Waistcoats; we later met and she commissioned another. Small world, living in Norfolk, it really is!)

Here we consumed a hearty lunch and people watched for a while. Then we popped next door to the Birdscape Gallery. Incredible art-work to be found here, with the emphasis on lino-prints - I was in heaven!

I particularly liked this running hare, by  Harriet Mead. I did ask about taking photographs and was given permission, but took too many to include here, and also wasn't able to remember the artists' names. I did buy a beautiful book though - perhaps will show you that some other time.
Then, we set off again, meandering up through Stiffkey before dropping back down to the Creakes, in order to pop in on Stitch & Bitch friend Yvonne Autie for a cuppa, and a chat.

Finally, back through more lovely sun-dappled lanes to Lynne's home where I left her to return to mine.

An absolutely fabulous day, weather did us proud, and such a pleasure to be able to meet such wonderfully creative people and feast our eyes on their work. I hope you managed to hang on in there with me - this has been a long post! Thanks LynneK for driving, and for your great company.